Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Prisoners (2013) - Villeneuve arrives in Hollywood with grim crime story

11/18/2023

Prisoners (2013) - Villeneuve arrives in Hollywood with grim crime story

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Two very serious-looking male stars in a sea of grey and darkness make up this poster for Denis Villeneuve's Prisoners

During a normal Thanksgiving celebration a family suddenly lose two daughters. The tracks to finding them are few, and as despair lurks, the mystery widens.

Prisoners is written by Aaron Guzikowski (Contraband (2012)) and directed by Canadian master filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (August 32nd on Earth/Un 32 Août sur Terre (1998)), whose 6th feature it is.

With a strong opening and a monumental rain (so great it made me wonder how it was created) this thrilling, very well photographed (cinematographer Roger Deakins (Sicario (2015))) film pulls you in. It serves several good performances: Jake Gyllenhaal (Jarhead (2005)), Hugh Jackman (The Greatest Showman (2017)), Maria Bello (Lights Out (2016)) and more in the background: Terrence Howard (Iron Man (2008)), Viola Davis (Widows (2018)) and Paul Dano (Youth (2015)) are also good.

The film is long but it manages to keep us close to its electrically grim story. Unfortunately it is resolved poorly, SPOILER since Guzikowski's script finally refuses to accept the obvious crook (a pedophile) to instead give us some babble about labyrinths, snakes - and Melissa Leo (Coast (2021)) as a heavy! She is a Jigsaw-like (from Saw (2004-) franchise fame) character, who punishes God for children's cancer and locks Jackman into a hole ... - Unsatisfying.

Related posts:

Denis Villeneuve: Dune/Dune: Part One (2021) - Villeneuve revitalizes another SF boulder

2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Blade Runner 2049 (2017) - Villeneuve's speculative sci-fi sequel is fascinating but flawed

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess
Arrival (2016) - Villeneuve, Heisserer and Adams head sensational sci-fi wonder
Incendies (2010) - Villeneuve's dreary and depressing, wildly overrated drama

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 46 mil. $

Box office: 122.1 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 2.65 times its cost)

[Prisoners premiered 30 August (Telluride Film Festival, USA) and runs 153 minutes. Guzikowski's script landed on the 2009 Black List, a list of Hollywood's most popular unproduced scripts. Shooting took place from February - May 2013 in Georgia. The film opened #1 to a 20.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#4), grossing 61 mil. $ (50 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 11.6 mil. $ (9.5 %) and France with 9.7 mil. $ (7.9 %). It additionally made an estimated 18.3 mil. $ on the North-American home video market alone. The film was nominated for 1 Oscar: Best Cinematography, lost to Emmanuel Lubezki for Gravity. It also won 2 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #163 on the site's Top 250, sitting between Raging Bull (1980) and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). Villeneuve returned with Enemy (2013). Jackman returned in Chantoozies: Baby It's You (2014, music video) and theatrically in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014); Gyllenhaal in Enemy. Prisoners is certified fresh at 81 % with a 7.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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11/18/2023

Prisoners (2013) - Villeneuve arrives in Hollywood with grim crime story

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